Hippodămus
(
Ἱππόδαμος). A Greek architect, born at Miletus in the
second half of the fifth century B.C. He was the first inventor of a system of laying out
towns on geometrical principles, carried out, under his direction, in the laying out of the
Piraeus (q. v.), the harbour-town of Athens, and also at the building of Thurii (B.C. 443) and
of Rhodes (408 B.C.); it was also used in subsequent times in the foundation of new towns.